Opening Game is Sept. 12th vs Brazil

Former Westside Breaker youth player Alexandra (Ali) Riley will be playing in the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup in China begining on Wednesday, September 12th as they take on the # 8 ranked team in the world, Brazil in their opening game. We are incredibly proud of Ali as she grew up in Pacific Palisades and started her club soccer career with the Breakers (see the photo below) eventually playing on our U17 Premier level team in 2003. After graduating from Harvard Westlake high school in 2006, she played in the FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Russia last summer for New Zealand before joining the Stanford University women’s soccer team last Fall.

Ali Riley as a young Westside Breaker player

Ali was called up to the full Women’s National team this year for New Zealand where she played an integral part in helping the Kiwi team qualify for the 2007 Women’s World Cup. For more information on Ali and the rest of the Kiwi team, please check out the New Zealand information page on the FIFA Women’s World Cup website at http://www.fifa.com/womenworldcup/teams/team=1883725/index.html

Ali and her teammates recently played in a friendly match against the powerful United States team and Ali started and played almost the full game in a 6-1 loss to the #1 ranked team in the world. New Zealand has a difficult pool play schedule in China as their next two games are against Denmark (ranked #6) on Sept. 15th and host China (#11) on Sept. 19th.

After the World Cup, Ali will head back to Palo Alto, California where she will join the Stanford University women’s soccer team for her sophomore season. Last season, Ali earned All-Pac 10 Freshman team honors.

Finally, in addition to congratulating Ali on her incredible accomplishment, we also wish to congratulate her proud parents, John and Bev, who have been long time supporters of the Westside Breakers soccer club. John put together and launched the club’s first ever website and served as the webmaster until recently. Thanks, congratulations and best of luck in China!

Check out the following websites for more information on Ali and the Women’s World Cup.